Heroes Always get Remembered, but Legends Never Die
by xenosthewriter
Summary: An assassin receives a strange message from an untraceable source. He soon gets caught up in the chaos of an interdimensional war.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE: A Job Well Done

Blue lightning. Chakra bullets. It was almost beyond comprehension. Everything was flying so fast, and I couldn't do anything. I was only two when it happened. When my parents died. I was always part of the Kotanime kekkei genkai, and I somehow had some other kekkei genkai mixed in there, like particle release and yin-yang and wood release, and we were always hated for our power. But why did it have to be me?

…

 _Got him._ I thought to myself as I located my target through the scope of my gauss rifle. The name was kinda deceiving. This thing was more of a gauss cannon. I shifted my position to be more accurate. _Damn rifle_ I cursed mentally. I hated using them. Most people did. Gauss rifles were bulky and heavy and took forever to recharge, giving you one chance in most cases. They were accurate...most of the time, but you could never fully trust one. I would have preferred to just throw a kunai at him, but I didn't think I could hit him from 5000 meters. Sure, I could throw it that far, but not very accurately. I would be lucky to hit the broad side of a chakra stream. I looked through the scope again. Luckily, I had experience. I knew just how to aim to compensate for the last minute twitch of pulling the trigger. I knew how chakra streams would alter the path of the discharge. It was a strong shot - grazing the big toe would blow the target up due to electrical discharge - but it was unreliable. _Why the Yamanaka clan?_ I asked myself. The person I was assassinating was a member of the Yamanaka clan, a clan of shinobi with an ability similar to the great dojutsu of the Hyuuga clan, the byakugan. It allowed them to detect people with a malicious intent toward the user within a certain range. In this case, that range was 4950 meters, and to be safe I took another 50 away. He wouldn't be able to see where I was, only that I was there, but that led to the second ability of the Yamanaka. They had basic precognition abilities when they detected their enemy, making any attacks I used useless other than a simple hand to hand fight. I wanted to not have my face be seen, so I didn't risk it. My finger tightened on the trigger. I adjusted aim slightly, got everything ready, and pulled. The gun twitched slightly, as expected, and there was a loud humming before a bolt of energy shot out of the end. I watched as it struck my target in the chest and he exploded, most of his body vaporised from the heat. I smirked to myself as the gauss cannon folded back up into a small thumb drive. _Another clean kill._

I walked back into my room and called my client. The phone rang three times before he answered.

"Yes?" he said. I turned on my voice modulator.

"The job is done, sir," I said, my voice modified by the device held to my throat. "I will send a pickup to get your money."

"And how do I know you actually did it?" He asked, sceptical. I rolled my eyes.

"Look out your north window," I said before hanging up. I threw my phone onto the couch and collapsed on my bed without even stripping. I passed out quickly.


	2. A New Mark

CHAPTER 2: A New Mark

I woke up in the morning and realised I was still in my day clothes. I stripped and took a nice, hot shower. I got dressed in my usual: A pair of black cargo pants, a superlight chain tunic under a black t-shirt, a black hoodie, and a utility belt. I pulled a pair of fingerless gloves on and affixed my earpiece onto my ear. I checked the oversight, a slide out hologram over the eye that I could pull up a GPS on, among other things. I put away the oversight and walked out of my house. As I walked toward the ramen shop for their breakfast special, I started thinking. _You know, you'd think that with all these tech advances, they would have designed decent transportation._ I walked into the ramen shop and ordered my usual large salt ramen. I put it down and ordered another. I was waiting when a familiar face appeared next to me.

"Oh, hey Crimson!" I said, talking to my friend who had walked in. He looked at me and smiled. His name came from his eyes, which were a weird, well, crimson colour.

"Good to see you!" My fellow jounin said with enthusiasm. We had been on the same squad as genin, so we were pretty tight. "How've ya been?"

"Pretty good," I said. "Business has picked up a bit." Crimson was the only person who knew I was an assassin, but he didn't care, as long as my mark wasn't him. Everyone knew I was in the city, but no one knew it was actually me. "Just hit a mark last night." I said as my ramen arrived. He chuckled at my bowl.

"You hungry?" He said.

"This is my second bowl," I replied. He snorted.

"Fatass." He mocked as I picked up my first spoonful. I pulled a kunai out and threw it into his chest without looking up. He chuckled and pulled it out of his shirt.

"Careful, or you'll become as salty as that ramen." He joked. I threw a noodle at him and drained the last of the bowl, then got up, deciding I was done.

"Hey chef!" I yelled back. The chef poked his head through a door frame. "Put it on Crimson's tab!" I walked out to Crimson's chorus of "Wait what?" I walked over to the Hokage's mansion. I knocked on the door and was allowed in by a small figure, a servant I had never seen before. She seemed familiar somehow. I went into the Hokage's office. He had his chair turned around and was looking out the window. I opened the door silently and slipped inside, making no noise.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" the Hokage said as I approached his desk. I grinned from ear to ear.

"Impeccable as always, Obara!" I said. I had trained under the 14th Hokage for a while and was never surprised by any of his abilities. "Any S-rank missions?" A while back, the mission system was changed. Instead of being assigned a mission that was available, you were assigned a mission that was worth your time. I took almost exclusively S-rank missions, but some people took an easy B-rank just to be lazy. He chuckled and turned.

"Always eager, aren't you?" He said. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything for you." My grin disappeared.

"Any borderline?" I asked, desperate for something to do. "Hard A-rank?"

"Nope and no," he said. I looked down.

"Welp, bye then." I said before leaving. As I walked out, I took a better look at the new servant. "Wait, I have seen you before!" I said suddenly, making her jump. "Eveline?" The new servant was Crimson's girlfriend. She was a clumsy and a bit emotional at times, but she was a nice friend. She and Crimson started dating a while back. I smiled at her and she grinned back.

"I needed a job and this was the best place I could find." She said. Hokage-sama paid pretty well, so it was an obvious choice for anyone. "Please don't tell Crimson." She pleaded. I frowned.

"Why?"

"I just have a feeling that he won't like my new job." She said. I thought about it for a bit.

"Okay." I said as I walked out. I hunted down Crimson. "Hey, you should ask your girlfriend about her new job." I left before he could ask me what I meant. After wandering around the city and grabbing a couple bags of jawbreakers, I went back home and sat down on my bed before opening a book and reading for an hour before a call came in. It was an unfamiliar ID, so I grabbed my voice modulator.

"Yes?" I said in my distorted voice.

"I have a mark or you." I heard a voice say. Straight to the point.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"A man by the name of Obara Ranka." My eyes widened, then relaxed when I realised it was just someone named after the Hokage. I looked through my registry, then, finding his name, marked his address on my oversight.

"It's gonna be 500 dollars," I said. I heard a sigh on the other side.

"Fine. Just kill him." I smiled to myself.

"Just watch the news tomorrow morning."


	3. Another Job Done Well

Chapter 3: Yet Another Job Done Well

I sat and thought about what I had found. Ranka wasn't home, and he wasn't in his office. I thought about where he could be. I walked up to the roof of the building he worked in so I had quiet. I jumped up and rolled to take the pressure off my legs. I got up, then heard voices. I quickly ducked around the door to the top and peeked out to see Ranka talking with some other men. I calmly walked out to where they were. "Excuse me, Mr Ranka?" I said, moving my eyes across them all like I didn't know which one was Ranka. I was outnumbered, but I knew they wouldn't be able to do anything to me I didn't want them to do.

"Yes?" Ranka said in a low, gruff voice. He was big and bulky, and about three inches taller than me. I smiled.

"I have this assignment for school about psychology. I wanted to interview a businessman, and you were the first to pop into my head. I can come back later if you like." He grinned.

"No, now's good. Let's have these guys answer too!" He said. I grinned.

"Thank you! Okay, question one: Are you afraid of heights?" I asked. They all said no. "Okay, question two: Are you afraid of falling from a large distance, say, from the top of this building?" The two said no, but Ranka frowned.

"I know this building is safe." He said. I used chakra to make my eyes flash red.

"Maybe normally, but not with me here," I said as I shoved one of the other businessmen off the side of the building. Ranka's eyes widened as he realised what I did. I grinned and threw the other one off as well. It was just me and Ranka.

"W-why?" He said, moving away from the edge. I smiled at him.

"It's nothing personal, I'm just getting paid to do this." Ranka's face twisted in rage as he reached off to the side and summoned a Zanpakuto out of nothing. "I see you can use a chakra dimension," I said. I pulled out a disc and threw it up, jumping up to it and grabbing both sides of it. It split into two scims, one slightly longer than the other, and I slammed into the building, shaking the whole thing and causing the air to spark with the element of the scims. I pulled my scims out of the building, where they had gotten stuck. He stared at me in wonder. I smiled and raised my finger.

"Utaka!" I said sharply as his eyes rolled back and he went into a vision. I had used a genjutsu similar to the Tsukuyomi, but not as powerful. I couldn't manipulate the perception of time with it, but it would allow me to control what they saw. I was making Ranka see his death over and over and over again. I released him from the genjutsu, and he groaned and rolled over. He looked pale and sickly. Suddenly, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. I wheeled around and ducked, almost sending Ranka off the building from his kick. I looked down and saw a bunch of people at the bottom looking up. Suddenly, I spotted a few Konoha elites. They had been sent to destroy me. I smirked and put a mask on, covering my face. They jumped up and saw me standing over Ranka, with my sword through his chest. I looked over at them, raised my right scim to the air, and a massive amount of chaotic energy spilt out, almost breaking the building. I heard windows shatter. I threw a genjutsu out to confuse them and disappeared by the time they regained their senses.

I walked calmly back to my house and took off my mask. I had cast another genjutsu to make everyone stay away from the streets. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I rarely even used the Utaka, and barely had the chakra control of the right type to cast genjutsu at all, so what I had done was pushing my genjutsu limits. I thought back to how I had let all that evil energy spill from my scims. I had a pair of scims specially made to control chaotic forces. I had to release it every so often, as I hadn't discovered how to control it yet. Some called my acts vigilantism, but I really just did what I did as a chaotic hero. I'll destroy evil, but at the cost of many if I have to. Lately, though, the chaos energy in the area had been rising. I knew it meant yang was beginning to overcome yang, possibly because of my releases or possibly because yin was becoming more and rarer, but something would have to be done eventually. _Eh, I'll leave tomorrow's problems to tomorrow's me._ I thought to myself as I fell asleep.


	4. A Good Fight

Chapter 4: A Good Fight

The next morning, I walked down to the Hokage's house again. I passed by Eveline in the doorway and walked upstairs. I tossed a shuriken at the Hokage after opening his door and he caught it.

"Hey Obara, did you hear about the assassination?" I asked. He looked up at me.

"Yeah, looks like the masked vigilante got away again." He said. I cringed inside, wishing Obara wasn't actively against me. I got to the point.

"Any missions?" I asked. He smiled.

"Again? Normally you wait a few days at least." He teased. I grinned at him.

"Yup! I'm upping my game!" I said.

"No, but I'm thinking I'm gonna give you a team." My eyes widened. "Wait, why?!" I shouted. "You know I hate kids!"

"Exactly." He said, grinning from ear to ear. I glared at him.

"It better be a damn good team!" I said before leaving and slamming the door. I heard Obara chuckling as I walked down. Eveline popped out from around a corner.

"That didn't sound pleasant. What happened?" she asked.

"Apparently, I'm getting a team," I said as I walked out. I sought out Crimson and eventually found him eating a popsicle on a bench. I sat down next to him. He glanced over before pulling his popsicle out of his mouth.

"Yes?"

"So how'd your mission go?" I asked. Crimson had taken a borderline mission, a mission that was almost an S-rank, but not quite.

"Pretty good. I managed to get the rogue group and collect the stolen wares from them before I was knocked out. When I woke up, I was in a dungeon I broke my way out of and had to battle my way through a thousand enemies to get back." he said. I grinned.

"And by that, you mean you rode up to Sunagakure, got attacked a couple of times by harmless bandits, got the message across, and came back without a scratch," I said, all the while watching him pale.

"Well, maybe...but let me dream!" He said. I laughed and got up to get myself an ice cream cone. I sat back down and ate my food in silence.

"Hey, you wanna fight?" I asked. To that day, Crimson was the only one who had ever given me a real fight. He grinned.

"Let's go!" He said as he got up. We walked over to the training field, which was empty, thankful. We walked about thirty feet apart and got into our basic stances. Crimson busted out this weird, dramatic stance where he grabbed his coat collar with one hand and dropped the other down in a fist, while I raised my eyebrows and had my hands in my sweatshirt pocket. He yelled and ran at me. I ducked just as his foot went over my head and jumped away when he tried to axe kick.

"Come on Crimson! Put some effort in it!" I yelled as I landed. He grinned and launched at me with incredible speed. He punched me in the chest and threw me into the ground. I jumped back. "Now that's more like it!" I said grinning widely. We exchanged punches and kicks at impossible speed, then jumped back and formed hand seals.

"It's time for my new technique: Multi shadow clone giant rasen shuriken barrage!" He yelled as a hundred mini versions of himself ran at me with massive rasen shuriken. My grin turned into a snarl. "Eight Trigrams! 128 palms!" I shouted as I activated my Byakugan. As they flew toward me, I dodged past and destroyed them. I got all except one, who flew through my blind spot and hit me. I rolled forward and came up with a flying axe kick that caught Crimson off guard and sent him flying. I dusted myself off while he recovered. I looked to the side and saw a large group watching. I smirked. Our fights were legendary, and most of the city would watch them if possible. Crimson came flying through the trees, coming straight at me. I stepped back, but he reached out his chakra to hit me. I stumbled back a little, then recovered and blocked a combo attack he commonly used.

"Damnit!" He shouted as he realised I was blocking all of his hits. He jumped back and gathered chakra. I formed six hand seals.

"Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!" I yelled as a massive fireball flew out of my mouth. It hit Crimson and seared his clothes and hair, but he stayed mostly intact. His eyes opened and he jumped at me, faster than before. _Oh right!_ I thought as I dodged out of the way. _The angrier he gets, the stronger he gets!_ I blocked a kick and punched him in the stomach, staggering him. He kicked at me and I caught his foot, but he twisted around and punched me in the face. I flipped over and landed about four feet away from Crimson. I summoned a ball of spinning, condensed chakra. "Rasengan!" I said as I slammed it into his chest. He flew backwards and landed on his back. He got up, shook off the damage, and pulled out a bo-staff. I flipped up my disc and it transformed into a pair of scissor blades. I had made it with shape changing chakra, and it was able to become virtually any weapon, but it's strongest form was the scims. My scissor blades were fire and lightning release, and Crimson's staff was wind and earth. He swung his staff around and created three spinning shuriken-like projectiles out of wind. I dodged past them and rushed Crimson, a maniacal grin on my face. I swung one blade overhead and he blocked it, but I swung my other in a right hook and grazed his arm. He jumped back and surrounded his staff in wind, essentially making it a double ended sword. He swung at me and I blocked him, then ducked under another attack of his and stabbed him in the leg. He grimaced and jumped back, landing wrong due to the paralysis I applied to his leg from the lightning release in my sword. He dropped and his bo staff disappeared, but then he formed a bunch of hand seals. A massive hole opened up and mud projectiles started shooting out.

"Doryuudan!" He shouted. Then he formed more hand seals and shot fire bullets out of his mouth that lit the mud on fire. "Karyuu endan!" The mud gained speed and came from every direction. "Together, Katon! Karyuudan!" He shouted as they exploded on impact. When the smoke cleared, I was lying on the ground, bloody and beaten...or so it seemed. My shadow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and I walked out of the forest, unharmed. Everybody started clapping as Crimson struggled to his feet. "Next time, dammit!" He said, grinning. I helped him up and helped him walk to the infirmary. After depositing him there, I went back home to sit down and read, all thoughts of a team purged from my mind.


	5. A Strange Message

Chapter 5: A New Message

I woke up with a crick in my neck. I looked around and saw I was still sitting in my chair. It was the middle of the night. I got up and went to the kitchen. I had just turned 21, the legal age for alcohol, and I pulled out a bottle of rum to drink. I sat down at my table and started drinking. I always liked the feeling of alcohol in my body. As long as I kept my chakra distributed well enough, I would never get drunk, only slightly buzzed. I groaned and rubbed my eyes with one hand and my neck with the other. I opened my oversight and checked my email. No new messages. _What was the bad thing?_ I thought. I remembered something bad happening, I just couldn't remember what happened specifically. Suddenly, it struck me. I fell out of my chair and laid on the ground in a fetal position.

 _A team? Why?_ I thought to myself over and over. I rolled over and got up. Looking down, I saw my shirt was wet. I looked up and saw my bottle had spilt over when I had collapsed. "Ah, great!" I said sarcastically as I cleaned the mess and got stripped to go shower. _Why give me a team?_ I thought as I stepped into the shower. _He knows I hate genin! The stuck up brats have no respect and always think they're the best. I can't handle that!_ I finished cleaning up and put my usual clothing back on. I grabbed my full tools and my disc. I had other shape changing things, like a phone that turned into a drone and a stick that turned into a crossbow, but the disc was the most useful. I headed down to the local coffee shop and waited outside for it to open. While I waited, I fiddled with a little game on my oversight. Suddenly, a message appeared. Without my consent, it opened up.

"Hello, Taniyomo." A distorted voice said. It was an audio message. I paused it and plugged in my earbuds. I put in my earbuds and continued the video. "I know you are wondering who I am, what I want, and Why you are getting a team, but you'll know soon enough. I am a friend, my name is not important. I want you to do your best with your team. I pulled some strings to get you this team, as I dream future destinies and you and your team are woven in all of them. Trust me, don't fight about the team. Take them willingly, train them well. If you don't, well, you may inadvertently cause the end of time." The video ended. I went into my messages but found nothing. I pulled up my keyboard and started tracking the IP, but it split in so many places it was impossible to follow. I gave up and put everything away. As I thought about the message, the cafe opened. I went inside to grab my usual, a mocha with caramel touches and a slight mint overlay and sat down. I chugged my coffee and went to find the Hokage.

I found the Hokage on a cliff, looking over the horizon. "Isn't just great?" He said. I raised my eyebrow.

"I'd like to request permission to look over the teams," I said. He turned and smiled.

"So you have accepted the team? You have Yokoi Yamanaka, Chikai Soton, and Teruya Shogo." I didn't recognise the first two, but I sure knew the last one. He had gone a similar way to the great legendary warrior, Sasuke Uchiha. His entire clan was killed for an unknown reason, and he survived, just barely. He was nursed back to health, and upon awaking, his personality was different. He thought that since he survived, he was superior to his entire clan, and by extension, everyone else. I hated him with a passion.

"You rigged that!" I said, my rage spilling out. Obara grinned.

"Maybe. But that's not important. What is is the fact that they get their teams tomorrow. Better get ready!" Obara said, grinning. Fuming, I ran back home to clean my stuff up.


	6. Beginnings

Chapter 6:

I got dressed and left my house to go to the academy for team assignments. I arrived and saw Crimson walking out with a team. He grinned and walked past. I went inside to hear a man's voice.

"Yokoi Yamanaka, Chikai Soton, and Teruya Shogo with Taniyomo Ryoji." I walked in.

"I'm here," I said. "Yokoi, Chikai, Teruya, let's go." They followed me out and onto the roof of the cafe.

"Well, introduce yourself!" Teruya said. I shot him a glare, then sighed.

"Hopeless…" I muttered to myself. "My name is Taniyomo Ryoji. I am a jounin level nin that was given three opportunities to become anbu captain but turned them down to keep doing missions I like. I will warn you guys, I have been pushed to over a full percent of my power only twice, when fighting another jounin, Crimson. I didn't want a team, I still don't want a team, so DON'T PISS ME OFF." I said. Teruya burst out laughing.

"He's all talk and no game!" He said. "Fight me!" He yelled. I admit I knew he was better than most genin, and even some chunin, but I wasn't gonna even try. I got up and walked over to him. He got up and threw a punch. His fist phased through me and I kept walking. Suddenly, my afterimage disappeared and Teruya was in a headlock.

"Pity, really. Still not a full half percent of my power." I said. Teruya growled before I chopped his jugular and he passed out. I dropped him - hard - and walked back over to the others. "And you guys are?" I asked. Yokoi looked up.

"My name is Yokoi. I am a genin level nin that aspires to one day join the anbu and protect the village. I want to serve them as they have served me." I didn't even ask about that one. I looked over at Chikai.

"And you?" I asked him.

"I'm Chikai, sir." He said timidly. I realised this was this year's lucky graduate. He had barely passed the test and wasn't truly worthy of being a genin. I sighed.

"Continue."

"I may be weak, sir, but I will surpass all my classmates." He spoke with a more confident air now. "I will become even stronger than you!"

"Doubtful," I said calmly. "Well, this was a fun day. Meet me tomorrow morning at 2:30 PM at training ground A. We'll have a little test to see where you guys are. Tell Teruya what I said." I said as I turned and left. They looked at eachother in confusion and ran over to Teruya to attempt to wake him up.

I sat down on my bed. _Ugh, this is gonna be a long couple of years_ I thought as I drifted to sleep.

I woke up the next morning and filled a canteen with some sake to take with me. I left to go to training ground A and ran into Crimson outside.

"Hey Crimson!" I said, grinning. He smiled and jogged over to me. "Where're you goin?" I asked.

"Just over to meet up with my team!" He said.

"Hey, I have an idea. We should have our teams train together regularly! You got a group of girls, so it'll balance out well with my team!" I said. I was really just hoping for a friend to work with. Crimson beamed.

"That's a great idea!" He said. "You're heading to training ground A, right?" He asked. I nodded confirmation. "We'll be right over there!" He took off to go find his team. I chuckled and walked over to the training field. I was a couple hours early, so I started getting warmed up. I batted away some trees and broke a wall.

"Oops," I said to myself, looking at the hole I created. I had broken the wall blocking the training field off from non-shinobi. I shrugged and finished warming up just in time to see Crimson walking down with his team.

"And this is Taniyomo!" he said to them. "Say hi Taniyomo!"

"Hi Taniyomo, I wanna die plz b0ss," I said as they looked at me in confusion. I laughed. "Hey, guys!" I said cheerfully. "My team's not here yet, so just warm up a bit. You'll need to be spry for today's training." They kicked up some training. After about 30 minutes, my team arrived. They walked in.

"Well, you're early!" Chikai said. He clearly thought they'd be here and warmed up by the time I got there. I beckoned them over.

"Get warmed up," I said as they started stretching. I looked around. "Alright, everyone! Once these guys finish warming up, I'm gonna see what you guys can do. I want all six of you to attack me. By sunrise, tomorrow morning, whoever hasn't landed a decent punch on me gets sent back to the academy. Crimson may not help you." I said. Their eyes widened.

"You can't do that!" Teruya shouted angrily. I laughed.

"I trained under Obara - lord hokage to you guys - for four years. I have some connections. I'm stronger than the hokage himself and could become hokage, I just have no desire to rule this nation. I have a bit of influence." I said. Teruya backed up, fuming. "You guys done yet? No? Ok, let's get some names." I turned towards Crimson's girls. "You guys are?"

"I'm Tone Tomo, and they're Aihara Shioko and Kishi Chikako. They don't like to talk much." One said, stepping forward. I grunted and looked back over. My team was standing expectantly.

"Okay, you may begin when ready." They all leapt at me simultaneously, and I jumped upward to avoid it. I landed in a tree above them. I raised my eyebrow at them. "You guys suck." They snarled and jumped at me. I blocked their attacks perfectly and rolled away. I spun toward them and formed six hand seals.

"Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!" I yelled as a ball of fire shot out of my mouth. The group scattered and I ran into the forest.


	7. A Message

Chapter 7:

I sat on a small log. Three hours had passed, and I still hadn't been found. I contacted Crimson telepathically - yes, I can do that - and told him to start giving hints as to my location. I had heard footsteps earlier, but I still hadn't been discovered. I sat there, whittling a stick when I heard a voice behind me.

"Taniyomo Ryoji, right?" I whipped around and saw a large masked man sitting on a stump.

"Yeah, why?" I said, approaching him cautiously. He sighed.

"Can't you tell I mean you no harm? My name is Josiapheth Muanake. I come to deliver a message."

"A message? From who?" I asked curiously.

"An anonymous source. It reads as follows. _I wish to deliver a message, Taniyomo. You have awakened the elder spirits, the ones guarding the five great artifacts. The exist across different dimensions and worlds, but with your scims, I'm sure you can track them down. You see, along with awakening these spirits, you have awakened a strange energy. We call anyone affected by it a legend because anyone affected by it will if they are well enough known, become impossible to kill. There is only one weakness to this ability. Every time you go through something that should kill you, you are forgotten some. Every time, it takes longer and longer to be resurrected, until one time you can't be resurrected. I would suggest you figure out how to use your scims properly, so you can move through dimensions. Oh, and a couple more things. One, you will need at least one person with you, maybe more. Two, there may be five great artifacts, but there are more than five spirits, and they aren't very happy. Wipe them out, then find me. I will reward you handsomely._ The note ends there" He frowned. "I'd be interested to hear about these scims."

"I'm sure you would. Go back to where you came from." I said. He shrugged and walked away. I went back and sat down. "Yare yare…" I said in my native language, meaning good grief. I walked back out of the forest to find Crimson alone on a stump reading some manga. I walked over to him and explained what had happened. He shrugged it off as a prank but assured me he would be able to go with me if it was real.


	8. A Challenger Approaches

Chapter 8:

Eight months passed. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. The only changes were the strengths in Crimson and I's teams. They had grown an inconceivable amount, and even Chikai was one of the best genin. I was proud of them. Over the time, I had developed my skills with my scims. I could almost fully manipulate the powers that they brought me. I still hadn't discovered an ability to move between dimensions, though. I had done some research on interdimensional beings. There were supposedly five dimensions, one for each artifact, all layered inside each other. I didn't believe a word of it, but this prankster certainly did his research. I was sitting thinking about all this when I heard a knock on my door. I got up and opened it to see Obara standing in the doorway.

"Yes?" I asked. I was tired and didn't care much about formalities.

"We have an issue. You understand this better than most of the people we know, so I figured I'd ask you. There are strange chakra readings in places where there isn't anything but open fields or forest. Do you know the origin?" Obara explained. I frowned and walked outside.

"Take me to the source," I said. He led me out and we ran over to one of the chakra sources. It was in a forest, specifically what was once called the forest of death. They say the Chunin exams almost always had a stage there hundreds of years ago. I walked to the spot, kneeled down, and closed my eyes to concentrate on the chakra. I could feel it's malevolent intentions. It was definitely Yang chakra. Suddenly, the ground shook. I stepped back and went over to Obara.

"You might want to take cover!" I shouted over the shaking and cracking before I turned around to see a figure rising out of the ground. It was shrouded in shadow and radiated chaotic energy. It looked at me and smiled.

"At last we meet...Taniyomo Ryoji!"


	9. The First Fight

Chapter 9:

"Obara, get back!" I shouted as I leapt in front of him. "Just who the hell are you?" I said as a face fully formed on the creature.

"Don't you know? You recognise this spot, don't you?" I frowned. "That's right, you found the scims here. Didn't you receive a message from an anonymous sender?"

"That was a prank!" I said angrily. The creature grinned.

"But it wasn't, and deep down, you know that. You know there's no way scims could naturally form like that. Who am I? I am the spirit of fear. I take the form of my opponent and radiate their deepest fears and hates. Don't you recognise yourself in me?" I looked closer and saw the form of the creature resembled me. Obara tapped my shoulder.

"What is he talking about?" He said. I scowled at the spirit before me. "You know that masked vigilante person?" I asked. Obara nodded. "Yeah, thats me." Obara inhaled sharply.

"That's not funny Tani!" He yelled. I turned and looked him in the eye.

"Don't you get it? The scims? The fact that I always act strangely when you mention the masked vigilante? It's me, Obara. It always has been." He looked at me in shock.

"You - YOU SON OF A-" He shouted.

"You can yell at me or whatever after I take this asshole out. Got it?" I asked. Obara's face twisted in rage as he backed away a little. I looked back at the spirit. "Just what do you want?" I asked. The spirit frowned.

"The fact that you found those scims presents a problem to us spirits. You see, we survive on the energies released from the artifacts. By extension, the only way to kill us is to use either the scims of yang or the weapon of yin. With your discovery, you would let people know about our existence and we would be hunted down. Therefore, we're gonna have to kill you. Oh, and Obara too. He's seen us, therefore he must die." The spirit fell into a fighting stance. "If you think you have what it takes, just try and defeat me!" I pulled out my disc and split it into the scims. They radiated yang from the control over them I had gained. I looked the spirit in the...eyes I guess?

"I'll have you know, I'm not just some pushover. I have never been beaten. Let's dance!" I yelled as I launched myself at the spirit, starting with a roundhouse kick. The spirit laughed as my foot passed through it and it grabbed me before slamming me down.

"I told you, the scims are the only way to beat us. You can't touch me, yet I can touch you!" It said before it kicked me into a tree. I struggled to my feet and wiped blood from the corner of my mouth.

"Heh, you're a strong one!" I said. I pointed a scim at him and released a blast of energy discharge outward from my body. "Let's go! No holding back!" I said as I began moving at my maximum speed. I swung my scims everywhere, but I couldn't touch the spirit. He was obviously ready to avoid destruction by these, as he knew how to avoid everything perfectly. Soon, he had knocked me scims away and was holding me against a tree. He held me by the throat and positioned his hand to pierce me.

"You're strong, but not strong enough," he said. I grinned.

"Can it be transplanted into a living thing?" I asked. The spirit frowned.

"Huh?"

"Can the energies within the scims be transplanted into a living being, or even replicated?" I asked. "No one will ever know, as you're about to kill me and Obara's next, so just answer the question," I said.

"Yes and yes." He said. He formed a series of hand seals, all of which I instantly memorised, and pulled out a kunai. It glowed purple and began emanating yang energy. I smiled.

"Alright, I'm ready. To kick your ass, that is!" I yelled. I kicked him back and jumped away from him. I put out my hands and all the chaotic energy from the scims was absorbed into me. My eyes glew a natural purple and I radiated a black aura. "It's time for you to meet your demise!" I yelled, my voice sounding doubled. I punched the spirit and my fist solidly connected. I threw him up and axe kicked him down before grabbing him by the neck and holding him on the ground.

"Your failure was due to your incompetence. You talk too much. Now, tell me how to hop dimensions!" I said. The spirit grimaced.

"You have to absorb my soul and use it to gain the power." He said. I grinned.

"Simple enough. Chaos style: Destruction Spikes!" I said as black spikes flew out of my hand and impaled him. I stood up and dusted my hands off. "Easy," I said as I passed out.


	10. The Reveal

Chapter 10:

I woke up the next morning in a well-lit room with Obara sleeping on a chair next to me. I groaned and his eye flicked open before he got up.

"You're lucky I found this strange bunker nearby, or you'd be dead from the amount of chaotic energy you absorbed. It had begun to consume you. I managed to extract some out of you, but you'll be forever affected by it." I sat up and winced. I looked down and saw there was a strange mark on my stomach. I looked up at Obara quizzically. "An extremely complex seal to keep it down and affecting you as little as possible. It will alert someone you care about if it's close to breaking, so I imagine I'll have to teach Crimson the seal to repair it." I glanced around the room and saw it was familiar.

"Where'd you find this place?" I asked in a raspy voice.

"About five miles north of where that fight happened." I looked around the room before my eyes lighted on a small portrait across the room. I got up, wincing, and walked over to the picture and dusted it off. I looked at it for about five seconds. Suddenly, I threw it across the room, vomited on the floor, and collapsed. I saw Obara above me looking down at me.

"What the hell Tani!" He yelled. I was shaking horribly.

"WHY?!" I yelled. "WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?! I yelled at the top of my lungs. I looked down at my stomach and saw the design had a cracking starting to go through it. I took deep breaths to calm myself down before I looked down again to see the cracking effect had lessened. I felt something wet on my cheek and realised I was crying. I lied on the ground, shaking for what seemed like hours. "Why?" I said in a raspy voice over and over again. Obara stood over me, calling my name and telling me to get up. He sounded like he was trying to talk while submerged in a pool. I shakily got up and lied back down in the bed I woke up in, still asking why to no one. After what felt like days, my head had cleared enough for me to hear Obara properly. Not that he was talking anymore. He was just watching me from the corner. I stared up at the ceiling.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked quietly. Obara jumped at my soft, quiet voice floating across the room towards him. He shook his head. I sighed.

"You know who I am now, don't you?" I asked. I continued without waiting for an answer. "This was my original base of operations. It was raided a while back by the anbu." Obara face lit up with recognition. "I saw it coming, but it was too late for me to get out. I knew I could fight them off. I didn't think you'd send the whole anbu after my ass. I was getting ready to fight when they came in. I knew many of them, but they had no idea it was me. I fought them off easily, but then the anbu captains came in. They all attacked at once. I killed the first four pretty easily, but the last one gave me some trouble. I managed to defeat him, and I ripped off his mask to see who he was. After I pulled off his mask and saw his face, I regretted everything. I saw the face of Karochimaru, my childhood friend bleeding out beneath me. I could feel the life leaving his body. He wasn't gonna survive. I pulled off my mask and touched my forehead to his. The last thing I heard from him was a soft quiet voice saying, "I forgive you...Tani." Do you understand now? I killed my best friend here! I've hated myself for it ever since. I tried to take my own life to repay him, but I couldn't. I physically couldn't die by those means. Every time I thought I was dead, I would come back. I'll show you." I said as I formed a chidori and stabbed myself. I collapsed and felt life fading from my body, and my vision went dark. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of Obara. "Do you know why this is?" I asked. "No matter what I do, I can't die. I'd be long dead due to suicide, but I can't die. I have a feeling it's related to this spirit business. That's the only reason I'm doing any of this. I don't care about our world or our species. I just want to regain the ability to die so I can atone for my sins." I said quietly. Obara's face was wide with shock, both from my failed attempt at suicide and the realisation that I didn't care anymore. I turned away from him and walked towards the door before a sharp stabbing sensation ripped through my body. I felt like I was being torn in half and all I saw was darkness before my vision went out from pain.


End file.
